Ever Ever After
by nixdragon
Summary: Jacob Black and Gen Swan Proposal scene, companion piece to She Will Be Loved. Focuses mainly on those two to keep from spoilers. This is what won on the poll for 600 story followers. (or it had before someone made it a three way tie)


Between Jacob Black and me, I'm supposed to be the _good_ liar.

I'm the one with the practice

But today Jake showed that I've maybe rubbed off on him a little bit.

Jerk.

It started with just another phone call. I sat drumming my fingers on the porch railing of my dad's house, waiting for my giant jerk of a boyfriend to show up. It wasn't often I actually came back to Forks, what with all the s*** memories I had of my high school years there. Usually I convinced Jake to take the hour or so sprint up to the cities where I'd found my first high school coaching job. Today he'd hurriedly told me that something had come up and somehow finagled my agreement to come down and hang out with the wolves in LaPush.

He was supposed to be picking me up for lunch before we went down.

Figured the drive would make him late: when was the last time he even used a car?

I frowned. Did he actually have a license?

I back off the porch rail and stretched, amused at the question-it was probably something my dad had asked Billy and Jake a thousand times but not something I'd ever considered. I flipped open my phone to text my dad with some joke about it and caught the time.

Jake was really late.

As always, my stomach began a war of anger and irritation. And hunger. Damn, I was hungry.

Ugh screw lunch. It wasn't like it was anything special.

I stalked inside and threw in a bag of popcorn. I'd had time to eat half the bag, an apple, several marshmallows, and drunk a cup of cocoa by the time Jacob rang the doorbell and even then he was practically out of breath.

"Hey." I gave him a puzzled look as I greeted him and gently grabbed his arm, pulling him down to give him a peck on the cheek. "You ok?"

"Oh, yeah." Jake grinned down at me for a moment and then seemed to reconsider, pulling me against him in a quick hug. "Just got held up." He muttered into the top of my head.

I sighed into his chest. He was always the warmest thing around, whether we were in Washington or dumb ass Florida.

"Hungry?" Jake asked, letting me go so I could lock up and then draping an arm around my shoulders.

I shook my head. "You were late." Jacob frowned. "What? Let's just head up to your dad's and you can grab a sandwich. They'll all be waiting anyway, won't they?"

He considered this as we got to his car and clambered in, finally shaking his head.

"They'll all still be dealing with things." Things? "And I really want a burger."

"We could do a drive thru. Won't they need your help?"

Jacob had a weird expression for a split second and then he shook his head. "Come on, it's been ages since we went a date."

Oh, ok, I thought. He's trying to get couple time and I'm being an ass. Good job, Gen. As though the imprinting thing didn't make it hard enough not to take advantage of the sweetheart I was dating.

"Alright. What place did you have in mind?"

"Oh, I don't know. How about Vern's?" He was already pulling out of the drive and on the way there.

Ok, he's not that great of a liar.

…

Jake and I did our usual, even though I wasn't hungry. I ordered everything I felt like trying and he ate whatever I didn't. Today, of course, that was one or two bites of pizza and a quarter of a burger for me and an entire pizza minus two bites and the rest of the burger for him. I entertained him with stories about the kids I was coaching while he devoured everything and then let him convince me to order some chocolate cake to split.

"I've missed this place." I commented as we waited for the dessert. "Our first date-this was the first place I saw how much of a pig you can be." I teased.

Jake grinned. "I was afraid you'd forgotten."

Yet again I was giving him a puzzled look. "Why would I- Oh, thank you…" I paused in the middle of picking up my fork as I realized the waiter wasn't finished and was holding some sort of notecard in addition to the check. "What…."

"Your first stop is almost done." He read in a monotone voice. He was a good 7 or 8 years younger than our 21 and 23 years and didn't seem to care about Jacob's dagger eyes. "Chocolate cake and memories: fun!"

"What?"

"Next you'll have to go and find, a place you almost lost your mind. If you're stuck, know it's not far. The first time you were rescued from your car."

The bored waiter tossed the card down on the table where it landed with an edge in chocolate frosting and stalked off, leaving me to look around in confusion as though I'd suddenly found myself in the Twilight…. What was it, Twilight World? Twilight Zone.

"What the f***." I breathed out quietly.

Jacob looked up from rescuing the card and shrugged, looking more amused then sorry. "Guess you should do what it says."

I glanced from him to the amused diners who had turned to watch. "Right. Right. What was that again?"

"You weren't listening?" Jacob teasingly held the card just out of my reach but it was still enough that I finally recognized his handwriting.

"Bad poetry distracts me." I shot back. "What is going on?"

"I don't know. I guess you'll just have to follow the card."

"What do I get if I do?"

"A prize."

"A prize?" I squashed down my suspicions with ferocity, not even letting them live long enough to know what they were. "What sort of prize?"

Jacob just shrugged, getting more and more smug as I interrogated him and he finished the cake off for me. I was too distracted for chocolate. For much chocolate anyway.

..

I got into the driver's seat this time and we made our way to my old job, my first job-an old coffee shop where he'd once had to replace a tire for me. I whined a little about how old this was making me feel but curiosity was taking hold very quickly.

I linked hands with Jake as we walked in the door and immediately regretted it because every single person inside turned to watch-most knew me from my days as a barista and most seemed to know more about what was going on then I did. My old boss, Annie, was looking very smug as she picked up a notecard just like the one in my pocket and dramatically cleared her throat.

"Oh, for… pete's sake. Can we at least go in the back?" I begged.

Annie shook her head and began to read with a hundred times the enthusiasm of the waiter.

"Out of town you now should go, to a spot you'll always know. You won't find sunshine or warm sand; but instead more of what I've planned. The spot where we first met and played, where our friendship first was made."

"So the beach?" I asked the giant beside me.

"Guess you'll have to find out." Jake said with a shrug.

The suspicious part of my brain began to act up again but if we were ending up on the oh so romantic beach, it was going to be a rather short scavenger hunt so I ignored it. I snatched the card from Annie, grumbled an embarrassed 'thank you', and yanked my laughing boyfriend out the door.

I paused outside the door, letting it slam shut as I began to fan myself with the two notecards.

"I am not driving all the way up there." I told him firmly. "So are you going to give me a 'piggyback ride' or just tell me what it says?"

"My lips are sealed, Genny."

"Damn it."

We drove out to the edge of town and left the car at the start of one of the less used trails. Jake stuffed his things into a bag and I pulled on a couple more layers before he transformed and I found myself yet again eyeing a wolf with chocolate brown fur and shaggy fur and Jacob's warm eyes. He had to kneel down in front of me for me to have any hope of climbing on and I took the opportunity to kiss his shaggy forehead-I liked to pretend I was scared of him when he did this. Both of us knew I would always be nervous around his second shape,

At the beach we found Embry and Quil. They handed me the notecard and started muttering comments to Jake that made his skin turn the old pretty red color. I yanked Jacob away from them before they could start brawling and we walked up to the Black's old house-the spot where'd I'd first told Jacob I loved him and the spot where Billy was waiting with my dad. We left as quickly as we could-nobody makes dad jokes like Billy Black and Charlie Swan.

Next we were off to the spot where Jacob had said the same thing to me-a long trek to his old garage where the next notecard was taped to the wall. We grabbed one of the old motorcycles for a ride back to Forks and I wheeled it to the door as Jacob fetched some safety gear for me.

"Nobody wanted to wait in the empty shed, huh?" I joked as he returned..

"Seth offered to." Jake laughed. "Leah wouldn't let him."

"And everyone else?" My nose wrinkled at the other possibilities.

"I took the hint and figured we could be alone for the rest of the hunt." Jacob reached over to take the bike handles from me but instead ended up wrapping his hands over mine. Leaning over the bike, he rested his forehead against mine and we stood for a moment just looking into each other's eyes.

I bumped my nose against his, close enough that our lips just barely touched. I heard his breath catch and I laughed, breathless myself as I got closer still and we met in a stood for a long moment, the warmth of his lips moving with mine, my hand escaping to snarl in his hair, and then he had to break away to catch the bike from falling on me.

"You know where we're headed?"Jacob asked, letting me clamber on first and then taking his seat behind me, wrapping his arms around me as I fiddled with the helmet he'd brought over.

"My dad's house, halfway up the stairs." The poem had referred to 'the spot I told you everything' before asking me 'what rhymes with everything?' I'd gotten to distracted by kissing Jake to remember to make fun of his poem writing skills.

I was about to start making up for it when I got to the spot outside what had once been my sister's bedroom door, still cracked from where Jacob had hit it so many years ago. The notecard was taped to the stair this time and even had a dusty boot print from where I'd run down the stairs early that morning. I flipped the card over, prepared for a scathing comment.

"Last is the spot of our first kiss,

With mistletoe we almost missed.

The spot I knew you were the one

I took a fall then another one;

I fell for you, my one true love.

Go back downstairs and look above."

"Back downstairs?" I grumbled jokingly. "How much exercise does one girl need?"

"Good point." Jake's face took on a too innocent look and then I was being tossed over his shoulder yet again, being carted back down to the front porch as I laughed too hard to point out he hadn't made me actually figure out the clue.

He set me down as I began to look around, my head swiveling higher and higher on the wall until I finally identified the notecard on the porch roof. It was unreadable and far too high for me to get to. I stood on tiptoe trying to see what Jacob had scribbled and also wondering how he'd managed to get up there without anyone seeing.

"What does it say?" I muttered to myself.

"It says," Jacob said dramatically. "'This is a distraction. Please turn around.'"

"Wh-"

I spun around.

Jacob was waiting with a grin but for once I wasn't looking up at him. He was kneeling down on the porch and pulling a small box out of his pocket.

"What rhymes with everything?" He joked. He was already opening the box.

I choked on my reply.

"You jerk." I finally managed to get out, my eyes on the simple ring.

"Is that Gen speak for 'yes I'll marry you'?" Jacob asked, sounding a little bit nervous.

I looked away from the ring and into his eyes. My giant sweet idiot Jacob. Did he not see the equally giant smile spreading across my face?

"Yes, Jacob." I started to reach for the ring and then hesitated. "Or once you actually ask me, it will be."

He wrinkled his nose and pulled the ring from the box, holding it up with one hand and taking mine in the other.

"Genevieve, will you marry me?"

"Yes."


End file.
